"Romancing the Stone" (1984) went about as far you could go in making an action hero out of Michael Douglas. It also gave a break to struggling young actor Danny DeVito and struggling young director Robert Zemeckis. And it helped make Kathleen Turner a star. She plays mousy romance novelist Joan Wilder, whose life enters one of her novels when her sister is kidnapped in Colombia and she must ransom her with a treasure map she was sent. Along the way she hooks up with a rough approximation of one of her novelistic heroes (Douglas) and of course ends up letting her hair down. The DVD, along with the sequel, "The Jewel of the Nile," is in release. (See DVD review on previous page.)

Turner is known as much for her voice as she is for her looks. To describe it as smoky and sexy doesn't do it justice. It's so suggestive that it became the voice (uncredited) for the sexiest animated character of all time, Jessica Rabbit (in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit"). She also lent that voice -- and the rest of her -- to "Body Heat," "Prizzi's Honor," "Peggy Sue Got Married" and "The War of the Roses."

Q: I guess the overriding thing about "Romancing the Stone" was how hard it was to make.

A: Yeah, it was physically quite tough. We shot the whole thing, basically, in Mexico. The rains, the mudslides -- I did get caught in a mudslide off camera. The crocodiles, the heat. I think I got about seven stitches on that one.

Q: What was the dumbest thing you did on it?

A: I don't know. One of the toughest things was crossing through the waterfall. The current was very frightening. We were tied off underwater in case we really did get swept away. It certainly didn't feel at all safe.

Q: What kind of audition did you have?

A: They were just concerned that I couldn't pull off the beginning of the film, the dowdy, insecure type. So I put on some old ragged sweat clothes and no makeup and sort of did an improv on early Joan. And so they believed I could do it.

Q: And it was the beginning of a beautiful relationship (with Douglas and DeVito, whom she later worked with in "Jewel of the Nile" and "War of the Roses"). How do you explain that?

A: We liked each other very much. We worked together well. It just seemed like once Danny and Michael decided to do "War of the Roses" I was the logical choice for it.

Q: What did "Romancing" do for your career? You'd done "Body Heat" already.

A: A lot. I'd already given them the sex thing, and of course after "Body Heat" I got all sorts of "Body Heat" rip-off offers, which is stupid. I had no desire to do that. I wanted comedy, so I got "The Man With Two Brains," which made fun of Matty Walker (her character in "Body Heat"). I've never been attracted to the same character or the same film back to back. I went from "Romancing the Stone" to "Crimes of Passion."

Q: Did you see yourself as a sexpot?

A: No. That's one reason why I refused to get stuck in it. I don't think of that as my strong suit.

Q: What do you think is?

A: Comedy. I enjoy comedy very much, and I think I'm really funny.

Q: What sorts of expectations were placed on you and the guys doing the sequel?

A: Sequels can be so difficult because the joy of doing the original one is learning about the characters, following the growth of the character. In a sequel, you already know who they are. There is no reveal. It's story and action.

Q: I was looking at the directors you worked with. Francis Coppola (on "Peggy Sue"). John Huston ("Prizzi's Honor"). What was that like? He must have been ill by then.

A: He was getting pretty sick. He was on the oxygen and stuff. But "Prizzi's Honor" was a lot of Jack (Nicholson) and me, too, because there were times when John would say, "Block a scene and let me take a look at it" kind of thing. So we would come up with a lot of things, like the rolling on the bed. He would just give these notes. I think once he told me after we did a first take, "No, no, no, that's not it. I need you to out-Sicilian the Sicilian." I said, "OK, I think I got it." And so we did a second take and he came over and said, "You can do anything, can't you?" And I said, "I can live off that for a while."

Q: You've done a lot dark humor in your time.

A: I know. I like sick humor. I'm going to be doing "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" at the Curran in San Francisco in late April. If you're looking for dark material, that's it.